


we found each other in the dark

by bucksnatalia



Series: soviet spouses drabbles [7]
Category: Black Widow (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Red Room, Secret Relationship, Sleepy Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bucksnatalia/pseuds/bucksnatalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natalia has never seen the Winter Soldier so peaceful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we found each other in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> A very, very late drabble for 616 Monday of Buckynat Week 2016! 
> 
> Title from the song "We Found Each Other in the Dark" by City and Colour. (Look it up if you haven't heard it... it's so Buckynat that it hurts.)

Natalia had never seen something so beautiful.

Dim moonlight streamed into the room through the blinds, setting soft streaks across the room. A noise had awoken her. It was nothing to worry about, she’d quickly realized as she stared around their little hideaway and found nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was just as they’d left it – the door shut and locked, the blinds lowered over the window, clothing tossed haphazardly this way and that… and him.

He was still asleep. He hadn’t even stirred.

Natalia couldn’t help looking at him a moment longer. It suddenly occurred to her that she had never seen the Winter Soldier like this before – he was usually the one to wake first, attempt to slip out of bed without waking her, and fail to do so. For once she was catching him in the sanctity of a deep sleep.

And he was stunning.

He’d fallen asleep on his stomach, arms tucked under the pillow, head turned towards her. The sheets were twisted around his legs and hips, but from the waist up he was bare, revealing the hard muscles of his back and human arm. Pink scars and new wounds from missions that hadn’t treated him kindly - many that he couldn't remember anymore -were visible along his back.

But it was not the physicality of him that was so extraordinary – although, of that she had no complaints either – but it was the serene vulnerability of sleep that caught her so off-guard. She had never seen him so at peace. He had always had a tension about him when he trained her, as if he was always on his guard – for what, she couldn’t have been sure.

When they’d started seeing each other in secret, that tension had only gotten worse. He would never admit it to her, but the prospect of being caught and forced apart terrified him. He didn’t have to tell her. She already knew, because she was terrified, too. Even in their most intimate moments together he’d always seemed to keep an awareness of everything going on around them, only managing to lose himself completely in her when the bliss was too much to ignore.

Now the tension had gone. The muscles of his back and shoulders were loose and relaxed, and the characteristic furrow of his brow had gone. He seemed so suddenly unafraid, at ease in the escape of sleep – for once his guard was down, at least for a little while.

He _never_ let his guard down. 

That he had made himself so exposed, for her alone, that he had chosen _her_ to trust with his life in his most vulnerable moments – that he felt safe enough with her to let himself breathe easily for a little while, despite everything she was capable of – meant something to Natalia that she couldn’t explain.

Shuffling forward gently on the mattress so not to jostle him, she balanced herself on an elbow and leaned to press a soft kiss to the top of his cheekbone.

Without waking, as if sensing the closeness of her body to his in sleep, the Soldier’s metal arm slipped out from underneath the pillow and draped itself over her waist to hold her there. Inadvertently, Natalia hissed out a breath – the touch was _freezing_ on her bare skin – and immediately felt a pang of guilt as his eyes half-opened and looked at her through the haze of broken sleep.

“<Natashenka,>” he mumbled with an edge of concern, “<What is it?>”

“Nothing,” Natalia whispered in English, “Go back to sleep.”

But he wasn’t having that. His brow furrowed, and though he’d closed his eyes again he propped himself up onto his human arm and rolled onto his side. “Nat–”

“I promise, it’s nothing,” she assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to urge him back down, help him ease back into sleep. When that didn’t work and he only stared at her warily, she moved it to his jaw. “Your arm is just... _very_ cold. That’s all.”

Thankfully, he breathed a sigh of relief. The furrow of his brow disappeared again, his shoulders relaxed. Something of a sleepy grin spread over his lips, and Natalia felt a tightness in her chest at the sight of it, a sudden desire to see him like this _always_. She couldn’t help but smile back.

“Well, if that’s all…” he murmured, and he pulled her against him, wrapping his other arm around her as well. For a brief moment her own grin disappeared in favor of a gasp of shock as more of her naked skin was exposed to the icy cold of his metal arm. Instinctively, she lurched forward in an attempt to free herself of it – right into the warmth of his bare chest.

Which was, of course, exactly what he wanted.

Grinning wickedly, he dipped his lips to her temple, his breath on her hair as he spoke making her shiver more than the freezing touches had.

“How about you help me warm it up?”


End file.
